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A.MES    L.    PETIGRU. 


J'llU(  hi^.l)lN<;S   OF   THE   BAT5   OF  CHARLESTON,  %.C,.,  ' 

MARCH   2;.,   1863. 


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NKVV    VOl{K: 
IMCIIAHDSON     &     COMPANY, 

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itt  c  ino  I*  i  rt  I 


OF    THE    LATE 


JAMES    L.    PETIGRU. 


TROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  BAR  OF  CHARLESTON,  S.C, 
MARCH  25,  186.3. 


NKW     VOIIK: 
l;  I  ('  II  A  l:  I)  SON     <t     (M)M  I'ANY, 

r,li)     15  K  ()  A  I)  W  A  Y, 

IHGd. 


/soo 

?3 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1860,  by 

RICHARDSON   &   COMPANY, 

In  tlie  Clerk's  Office  of  tlie  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


SRLF 
URL 


^^\  3(o"i  v-ic?^^ 


PREFACE. 


Mn.  Petigru's  virtues  and  attainments  are  too  fully  commemorated 
in  tbe  following  pages  to  require  notice  in  this  preface.  Such  meet- 
ings as  we  here  record,  often  assume  a  perfunctory  character ;  but 
this  was  remarkable  for  the  number  and  distinction  of  the  participants, 
and  the  much  more  than  ordinary  exhibition  of  respect.  It  represent- 
ed, too,  every  hue  and  shade  of  our  State  politics,  from  the  avowed 
Unionist,  on  through  the  moderate  States-rights'  men,  to  the  extreme 
secessionists. 

All  came  together  there,  from  their  diverse  points,  like  pilgrims 
to  a  common  shrine,  to  oifer  the  united  tribute  of  their  respect  and 
love. 

It  is  not  our  purpose,  therefore,  to  add  any  thoughts  upon  a  topic 
so  fully  and  ably  treated  ;  but,  in  giving  to  the  world  those  eloquent 
memorials  of  veneration  for  Mr.  Petigru,  we  would  take  the  op- 
portunity of  correcting  some  misapprehensions  whidi  liave  gone 
forth  in  regard  to  his  political  and  social  position  in  ihis  coiiiinu- 
nity. 

About  till!  first,  there  is,  to  this  extent,  nn  room  for  ((ucstidii 
whatever.  He  wa.s  an  ardent  lover  of  the  I'uiori,  and  lie  had  faith 
in  the  cnica<y  of  a  strong  government  to  sustain  it.  Tliero  is  no 
diversity  of  opinion  on  this,  and   it   needs  no  elaboration. 

A    friend,    from   his  own    e,xpcnen(te,    furnishes  a  touching    proof       / 
of    this    sentiment.     Srion    after    llie    Ordinaiiee    of    Secession    was 
pas-scd,  ho   accosted   him   in    IJroad  Street,   with   this  remark,     "  Mr. 
I'eti'TU,    ihrsi!    are    times,  whirh    rri|iiire    every    man    In    (Idine    his 
position.       \  I'll    weie   a    good    M»ldi(.'r   in    ih'-    War   of    I  >^  I'J  ;     your 


3 


4  PREFACE. 

captain  told  me  bo:  where  are  you  now?"  They  were  walking 
at  the  time,  and  the  old  man  bowed  his  chin  on  his  breast,  and 
walked  on  for  some  distance  in  silence  (his  friends  will  recall  the 
manner)  ;  and  at  last,   lifting  up   his  head  very  quickly,  he   made 

this  only  reply,  "  W ,  I  have  seen  the  last  happy  day  of  my 

life." 

But,  while  Mr.  Petigru's  devoted  love  for  the  Union  is  beyond 
all  dispute,  his  position  and  views  of  the  late  struggle  have  been 
misunderstood  and  misrepresented. 

It  is  said  that  his  love  of  the  Union  was  paramount  to  his  love 
of  the  State,  and  that  his  differences  entailed  upon  him  persecu- 
tion and  oppression. 

Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  fact  than  both  of  these 
statements. 

Mr.  Petigru's  position  was  this :  He  loved  the  Union ;  he 
would  have  given  his  life  to  preserve  it.  He  considered  the  course 
of  the  State  wrong  in  principle,  and  fatal  in  its  consequences. 
He  would  have  prevented  secession  by  any  sacrifice  it  would 
have  been  in  his  power  to  have  made.  But  this  is  all.  No  one 
can  truthfully  assign  to  him  a  more  complete  position,  as  a  Union 
man,  than  that.  He  deploi'cd  the  war ;  he  considered  us  mad  in 
attempting  it :  but,  when  it  was  begun,  he  felt  that  his  State  was 
his  mother,  and  to  her  he  owed  his"  all.  If  it  were  not  so,  why, 
at  his  advanced  age,  did  he  undergo  hardships  and  privation  among 
us,  instead  of  imitating  those  craven  spirits  who  took  flight  at  the 
first  note  of  danger? 

Even  before  the  war,  he  was  urged  to  settle  at  the  North,  whose 
people,  he  was  assured,  appreciated  him  as  we  did  not.  He  was 
elected  anniversary  orator  of  the  Story  Association ;  and  he  was 
much  urged,  in  and  out  of  his  family,  to  accept.  Why  did  he  not 
emigrate,  when,  in  forty-eight  hours,  he  could  have  passed  through 
the  lines?  It  was  because  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  stand  by  the 
State  tlirough  weal  and  through  woe. 


PREFACE.  0 

Mr.   Petigru's   sympathies  were  not  with  the  United-States  arms,    ^ 
after  the  war  was  commenced. 

He  always  spoke  of  the  contest  as  our  contest;  and  he  has  fre- 
quently said,  that  he   thought  xoe  would  achieve  our  independence- 

During  his  last  illness,  he  said  he  did  not  know  what  to  think 
of  the  termination,  as  the  combatants  seemed  to  be  so  equally 
matched. 

There  is  another  feature  of  his  position  in  the  late  struggle,  of 
great  importance.  Mr.  Petigru  could  scarcely  have  believed  in  y 
the  right  of  the  General  Government,  certainly  not  in  the  expe- 
diency of  its  attempting,  to  coerce  a  State  after  secession.  Our 
reasons  for  this  opinion  shall  be  stated,  and  the  public  shall  judge 
for  themselves. 

Early  in  the  war,  perhaps  even  before  the  attack  upon  Sumter, 
Mr.  Petigru  wrote  to  his  old  friend,  Lieut.-Gen.  Winfield  Scott, 
warning  him  against  an  attempt  to  subdue  the  South.  He  cau- 
tioned him  against  falling  into  the  error  of  supposing  that  this 
was  "a  Union  and  Nullification  affair."  He  dwelt  upon  the 
unanimity  of  the  whole  people  ;  and,  deprecating  it  as  much  as  his 
friend  could  do,  he  signified  his  views  by  this  strong  language, 
which  would  certainly  have  weight  in  our  day.  "But,  my  dear 
general,  suppose  you  go  on,  and  coerce  the  South,  :iud  sustain  tlio 
Union.  Would  a  Union  supported  by  bayonets  be  the  Union 
our  fathers  bled  and  died  to  accomplish?"  Although  wo  have 
marked  the  passage  as  a  quotation,  we  do  not  mean  to  be  under- 
stood as  quoting  literally  ;  but  we  arc  sure  his  meaning  is  given. 
The  contents  of  the  letter,  we  got  from  Mr.  Petigru  himself,  under 
circumstances  to  impress  tliem  upon  the  memory.  If  tlicy  are  not 
accurately  given,  let  it  be  shown   fi'im  the  letter  itself. 

So  niucli  for  his  views  of  the  struggle.  The  misapprehension 
is  still  stronger  in  relation  to  the  estimate  of  him  liy  our  jJiMiple. 
So  fnr  fiuin  his  ciuso  showing  intolerance,  it  has  been  cited,  ever 
since  the   days  of   iinllifiration,    as  an    eviilenee    how   iillle    polilical 


(')  PREFACE. 

differences  influence  the  regards  and   fostering  care   of  our  people 
for  their  great  men. 

For  upwards  of  thirty  years,  he  numbered,  among  his  clients  and 
his  most  intimate  friends,  men  of  opinions  diametrically  opposite  to 
his  own.  He  was  Solicitor  and  Attorney-general,  and  through  life 
could,  whenever  he  wished,  have  been  Judge  or  Chancellor  or 
Chief  Justice  if  the  office  had  then  existed.  What  higher  proof 
could  be  given  than  his  being  appointed,  just  before  the  war,  to 
codify  the  laws  of  the  State,  and  being  continued  in  this  office, 
by  annual  election  of  the  Legislature,  until  his  death  ?  There  never 
was  a  time  that  Mr.  Petigru's  opinion  would  have  deprived  him 
of  any  of  the  honors  of  his  profession,  nor  of  the  highest  social 
consideration  possible  to  be  awarded  to  any  man.  He  was  only 
not  elected  to  represent  the  State  or  people  in  Congress,  because 
his  views  were  well  known  not  to  be  theirs ;  but  even  then  we 
sent  him  to  the  Legislature  from   Charleston. 

And  how  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  Who  could  resist  that  cheery 
temper,  that  enlivening  smile,  those  feelings,  like  his  beautiful 
hair,  showing  no  frost  of  age,  but  youthful,  fresh,  and  genial  ? 
And  then  the  more  robust  qualities :  Look  at  his  courage  ! 
Could  a  people  who  value  it  so  fail  to  mark  and  appreciate  its 
possession?  See  him  before  the  Historical  Society  of  South  Caro- 
lina, where  he  says  of  the  Kevolutionary  War,  in  that  beautiful 
passage,  deserving  to  live  forever,  "It  is  not  true  that  all  of  the 
virtue  of  the  country  was  in  the  Whig  camp." 

Or  before  the  Confederate  Court,  resisting  the  Sequestration 
Act,  and  declaring,  in  the  stirring  words  of  St.  Paul,  "  I  was  free 
born." 

Wlio  that  ever  observed  the  dauntless  spirit  of  the  man  could 
fail  to  admire,  and  who  tliat  knew  could  fail  to  love  him  ?  Not 
ajipreciated  't  Persecuted  for  his  opinions  V  Was  ever  man  more 
respected  ?  Was  ever  one  more  free  in  the  expression  of  bis 
every  thouglit  V 


PNHFACE.  7 

Ilis  daughter,  in  a  letter  to  tlie  public,  has  shown  that  he  met 
with  nothing  but  respect  and  veneration.  Petigru  persecuted  ? 
^Vhy  !  no  man  who  knows  any  thing  of  his  position  here  could  say 
or  believe  such  a  thing.     He  was  our  pride  and  ornament. 

Observe  the  circumstances  under  which  the  meeting  was  held, 
to  which  we  are  now  inviting  your  attention.  It  was  in  the  spring 
of  1863,  when  the  Federal  arms  had  met  many  reverses,  and 
their  cause  looked  gloomy,  and  the  Confedei'ate  pulse  was  beating 
high.  It  was  just  then  that  it  pleased  God  to  take  away  this 
great  lawyer,  this  great  Union  man,  from  among  us.  Did  he  go 
down  to  the  grave  unlamented  ?  Were  there  no  honors  to  his 
memory  ?  Who  that  was  here  can  fail  to  reotiU  the  gloom  that 
was  thrown  over  the  connnunity?  Who  can  forget  that  mournful 
cortege  that  followed  him  to  the  tomb,  —  a  private  man,  holding 
no  office,  with  generals  and  colonels  and  stout  soldiers  mingling 
their  grief  with  our  stricken  city  in  the  fall  of  her  distinguished 
and  well  beloved  son  ? 

And  when  it  was  all  over,  and  he  slept  quietly,  see  what  an 
assemblage  of  his  brethren  was  grouped  together  to  do  honor  to 
his  memory !  —  from  the  white-haired  presiding  officer  (his  friend 
through  life)  to  the  tyro  without  his  first  brief, — all  ages,  all  poli- 
tics, all  manner  of  thougiit,  represented.  See  how  they  pour  forth 
their  love  and  admiration,  without  raca.sure  and  without  stint  ! 

Consider  the  man,  his  opinions,  the  time,  his  eulogists,  ancl 
it  will  be  no  longer  difficult  to  say,  that  neither  war  nor  puli- 
tics  nor  diirerences,  nor  any  other  thing,  ever  could,  for  i>ne 
moment,  sway  them  away  from  tlicii-  respect  and  love  for  James 
Louis  Petigru. 

Charleston,  July,  1^06. 

.NO'Ji;    \ 
"  History   is   t'.il>c  to   licr  triisl    wlun   sliu   licliays   the  iniist;  ol'  Inilli,  even 
nil  Iff  tlic  iiiflmncc  of  juitrioiir  iiiipnlsrs.     It  is  rwit  iriic  that  ail  (if  liic  viitui! 
of  the  'ountrv  was  in   (In-  NN'lii;,'  r,iin]i,  or  llial   all   of   liic  Tories  wore  a   liaiid 


/ 


/ 


8  PREFACE. 

of  ruffians.  Thcv  were  conservatives ;  and  their  error  was  in  carrying  to 
excess  the  sentiment  of  loyalty,  which  is  founded  in  virtue.  Their  constancy 
imbittered  the  contest,  but  did  not  provoke  it.  Their  cause  deserved  to  fail ; 
but  their  sulFerings  are  entitlwl  to  respect.  Prejudice  has  blackened  their 
name ;  but  history  will  speak  of  them  as  they  were,  with  their  f;iilings  and 
their  virtues,  as  more  tenacious  than  ambitious,  rather  weak  than  aspiring; 
and  show  towards  them  the  indulgence  due  to  the  unfortunate."  —  Petigru's 
Adilress  be/ore  the  South-Carolina  Historical  Society." 


NOTE  B. 

The  following  passage  from  the  same  address  shows  that  Mr.  Petigru 
would  not  be  himself  inclined  to  condemn  honest  differences  of  opinion  :  — 

"  South  Carolina  has  been  taunted  with  the  division  of  parties  that  marked 
the  war  of  independence.  It  is  the  rejjroacli  of  ignorance :  the  division  is 
proof  of  sincerity,  of  freedom,  of  manliness  of  character." 


THE  LATE  JA31ES  L.  PETIGRU. 


PROCEEDINGS  OF   THE  iSIEETING  OF   THE   BAR   OF   CHARLESTON. 


A  MEETING  of  the  bar  of  Charleston  was  held  on  "Wednesday,  March 
25,  1863,  to  pay  a  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  their  deceased 
brother,  the  Hon.  James  Louis  Petigru. 

On  motion  of  the  Attorney  General,  I.  W.  Hayxe,  Esq.,  Hexry 
A.  DeSaussure,  Esq.,  was  called  to  the  Chair,  and  the  meetin<i  further 
organized  by  the  appointment  of  C.  Richardson  IMiles,  Esq.,  as 
Secretary. 

The  Chairman,  in  opening  the  meeting,  said,  — 

There  are  times  and  occasions  when  the  customary 
language  of  sympathy  and  condolence  is  inadequate 
to  express  the  emotions  of  the  heart.  Death,  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  human  affairs,  the  common  inheri- 
tance of  humanity,  excites  no  unusual  disturbance ; 
but  there  are  also  extraordinary  occasions  which 
arrest  public  attention,  excite  the  keenest  sensibility 
of  society,  and  diffuse  general  gloom  over  its  compli- 
cated framework.  The  death  of  remarkable  men 
often  awakens  the  deepest  sohcitude  and  n flections; 
and  such  is  the  event  that  has  now  convened  the  bar 
of  Charleston. 

Our  recent  iillendance  on  his  obsecjuies  has  too 
mournfully  realized  to  us  that  tlie  Hon.  James  L. 
Petigru  has  been  translated,  by  the  dispensation  of 
Providence,  from  the  bar  of  Ins  count ly  to  the  bar 
of  God. 

0 


10  MEMORIAL   OF 

To  .abler  lianrls  must  be  confided,  on  a  future  and 
proper  occasion,  the  duty  of  delineating  the  elements 
of  character,  the  professional  learning,  the  genius  and 
the  moral  elevation,  of  this  remarkable  man  and 
accomplished  jurist,  who  has  left  his  impress  on  soci- 
ety, and  on  the  bench  and  the  bar  of  South  Carolina, 
for  the  last  half  century. 

Descended  in  the  maternal  line  from  a  respected 
Huguenot  family,  he  received  his  academic  education 
under  Dr.  Waddell,  of  the  Willington  Academy,  and 
his  collegiate  education  in  the  South-Carolina  College, 
under  Dr.  Maxcy  ;  and  pursued  his  legal  studies  in 
the  office  and  under  the  supervision  of  the  late  Wil- 
liam Robertson,  Esq.,  an  influential  and  respected 
lawyer  of  Beaufort,  who  long  enjoyed  the  confidence 
and  professional  support  of  that  community. 

In  stating  the  object  of  this  meeting,  it  is  neither 
my  province  nor  my  intention  to  anticipate  the  ex- 
pression of  ^V5  judgment  of  Mr.  Petigru's  prominent 
qualities,  and  of  the  proud  pre-eminence  which  he 
obtained  as  the  head  of  the  legal  profession  in  South 
Carolina.  As  primus  interpares,  his  competitors  at 
the  bar,  without  invidious  feeling,  admitted  his  indis- 
putable right  to  occupy  the  front  rank  of  his  profes- 
sion, without  a  rival,  without  fear,  and  without 
reproach.  His  brethren  throughout  the  State  all 
conceded  him  intellectual  superiority,  and  deeper 
learning,  and  a  higher  order  of  talent,  than  they  pos- 
sessed. 

Mr.  Petigru  possessed  by  nature  the  rare  endow- 
ments of  genius  for  the  creation  of  new  and  original 
ideas,  blended  with  talents  for  combinino;  facts,  and 


JAMES  L.  PETIGRU.  11 

marshalling  established  truths  with  admirable  judg- 
ment and  sagacity.  His  induction  from  his  preraiaes 
was  always  logical  and  lucid,  and  turnpikcd  the  legal 
pathway  out  of  the  most  complicated  labja'inth  of 
law  and  fact. 

Though  not  intending  hereb}^  any  labored  eulo- 
gium  on  his  character  and  worth,  I  cannot,  as  one  of 
his  personal  friends  and  contemporaries  for  upwards 
of  half  a  century,  refrain  from  bearing  my  testimony 
to  the  high  moral  intrepidity,  inflexible  principles, 
the  generous  antagonism,  and  liberal  practice,  which 
characterized  his  professional  career.  Ilis  manly, 
generous  nature  disdained  to  envelop  justice  in 
technical  meshes  or  metaphysical  subtlety;  and  his 
effort  ever  seemed  to  be  rather  to  eviscerate  truth 
and  justice  than  to  succeed  in  his  object  at  their 
expense. 

To  the  junior  members  of  the  bar  he  was  peculiar- 
ly courteous  and  accessible ;  and  no  one  ever  applied 
to  his  experience,  vigorous  intellect,  and  profound 
knowledge,  for  friendly  consultation  and  instruction, 
without  obtaining  the  benefit  of  his  assistance. 

Such  was  the  noble  man  whose  loss  we  mourn ;  such 
the  calamity  society  has  sustained. 

Attoni(!}-(Jcn.  IIaynk,  after  a  Ijiiof  allusion  to  the  sad  oceasion 
which  had  tailed  the  brethren  of  the  bar  of  Charleston  toj;ether,  olllred 


the  following 


PREAMIJLI-:    A.ND    RESOLUTIONS. 


The  death  of  one  still  in  the  fidl  vigor  of  his  facul- 
ties, whose  name,  by  common  consent  of  South- 
Carolinians,  has  been  for  forty  yeai's  enrolled   among 


12  MEMORIAL   OF 

the  great  intellects  of  the  State,  is  a  bereavement 
not  confined  to  the  community  in  which  he  lived,  or 
to  the  profession  which  he  adorned.  The  State 
mourns  the  loss  of  one  of  her  most  gifted  and  worthy 
sons  in  the  death  of  our  brother  lawyer,  James  L. 
Petigru.  But  because  he  was  our  brother,  and  the 
bar  —  the  bar  of  Charleston  —  has  afforded  peculiarly 
his  field  of  usefulness,  and  been  the  scene  of  his 
triumphs,  it  is  fitting  that  the  bar  of  Charleston 
should  express,  as  such,  their  sorrow  at  his  death, 
and  their  appreciation  of  the  rich  legacy  he  has 
bequeathed  them  in  the  bright  example  of  a  lawyer, 
as  elevated  in  the  morals  of  the  profession  as  he  w^as 
pre-eminent  in  learning  and  ability.  Fifty  years  at 
the  bar,  —  he  was  forty  years  ago  made  Attorney- 
General  of  the  State.  For  eight  years  officially  at 
the  head  of  the  bar,  upon  his  resignation,  now  more 
than  thirty  years  since,  he  became,  and  continued  to 
the  period  of  his  death,  its  acknowledged  leader. 
A  leadership  without  official  position,  so  universally 
conceded  and  so  uninterrupted,  has  never,  perhaps,  for 
such  a  length  of  time,  fallen  to  the  lot  of  any  other 
lawj'er  in  any  country.  Never  had  that  "jealous 
mistress,"  the  Law,  less  cause  for  jealousy.  His  life- 
long singleness  of  devotion  to  his  jji'ofession  was  not 
the  least  remarkable  circumstance  in  his  career. 
Though  alive  to  every  public  enterprise,  and  always 
interested  in  the  politics  of  the  country,  his  attention 
was  never,  ev^n  for  a  time,  distracted  from  the 
engrossing  pursuit  of  his  life.  Though  a  ripe  scholar, 
and  passionately  fond  of  letters,  scholarship  and 
letters    were    ever    subordinate     to    his    profession. 


JAMES  L.  PETIGRU.  13 

Though  eminently  social,  and  from  his  wit  and  genial 
nature  the  delight  of  the  convivial  board  ;  though  full 
of  human  sympathy  and  warm  affections,  —  "  the  prim- 
rose path  "  never  allured  him  to  the  neglect  of  the 
stern  and  ruQ-o-ed  duties  which  were  the  habit  of  his 
life.     But,  in  this  singleness  of  devotion  to  the  law, 
there  was  none  of  the  sordidness  of  a  Saunders  or  the 
narrowness  of  a  Coke.     It  was  his  selected  field  for 
manly  action.     Here  were  displayed  his  love  of  the 
right,  and  his  scorn  for  wrong.     Here  his  friendships 
were  made  effective,  and  his  generosity  and  charit}'' 
bore  fruit.     The  profits  of  the  profession  were  his 
least  consideration.      The  honors  he  coveted  were 
honorable  to  the  man  as  well  as  the  lawyer.     As  a 
lawyer,  he'was  a  model.     With  learning  unsurpassed, 
he  applied  the  powers  of  his  own  mind  to  work  out 
the  principles  involved.   A  "  case  "  was  as  nothing,  but 
for  the  principle  it  illustrated  or  established.     With 
all   his  extensive    reading,  he    cited    few  cases,  but 
those  were  to  the  point ;  and  the  principle  contended 
for,  he  enforced  with  a  fertility  and  aptness  of  illus- 
tration which  were  inexhaustible. 

Mr.  Petigru's  originality  of  manner,  his  humor, 
.  wit,  sarcasm,  and  wondrous  powers  of  ridicule,  were 
weapons  peculiarly  his  own,  which  it  would  be 
dangerous  in  any  other  man  to  attempt  to  imitate. 
Add  to  these  courage,  will,  and  indomitable  persist- 
ency of  purpose  which  never  flagged  or  faltered,  and 
he  was  a  power  felt  and  acknowledged  in  every 
sphere  in  which  ho  moved. 

"Take  him  for  all  in  :ill,"  it  will  be  long  ere  "we 
look  upon  his  like  again." 


1-i  MEMORIAL   OF 

He  is  dead  ;  but  the  days  of  his  pilgrimage  were 
more  than  the  usual  lot  of  man.  "  Threescore  and 
ten  "  had  for  some  time  been  passed  ;  but,  until  very 
recently,  his  was  a  robust  and  green  old  age. 

"  And  that  which  should  accompany  old  age,  — 
As  honor,  love,  obedience,  troops  of  friends,"  — 

he  had  in  no  stinted  measure.     Peace  be  with  him  ! 

Resolced,  That  the  Bar  of  Charleston,  in  the  death  of  James  L. 
Petigru,  Esq.,  mourn  in  heartfelt  sorrow  the  loss  of  a  beloved  and  vener- 
ated brother,  who  for  forty  years  has  been  their  honored  leader. 

Resolced,  That,  in  token  of  this  sorrow,  they  wear  the  usual  badge 
of  mourning  for  thirty  days. 

Resolved,  That  the  Chairman  be  requested  to  express  to  the  family 
of  the  deceased  the  condolence  and  sympathy  of  the  members  of  the 
Bar. 

Resolved,  That  copies  of  these  proceedings  be  presented  by  the 
Attorney-General,  in  the  names  of  the  Charleston  Bar,  to  the  Court 
of  Appeals  at  its  next  session,  and  to  the  Courts  of  Equity  and  of  Common 
Pleas  and  General  Sessions  for  Charleston  District ;  and  that  he  ask  that 
they  be  spread  on  the  minutes  of  those  courts  I'espectively,  and  that  they 
be  presented  by  the  District  Attorney  to  the  Confederate  Court  of  South 
Carolina. 

R.  Yeadon,  Esq.,  rose  to  second  the  preamble  and  resolutions,  and 
said,  — 

3f)\  Chairman,  —  The  relations  which  existed  be- 
tween myself  and  the  lamented  dead  render  it  both 
my  melancholy  duty  and  high  privilege  to  lay  my 
humble  offeriniji:  on  his  bier.  No  one  shares  more 
largely  than  myself  in  the  general  sorrow  of  this  com- 
munitvat  his  decease:  and  I  stand  second  to  none  in 
the  desire,  however  inadequate  may  be  the  perform- 
ance, to  do  fitting  honor  to  his  memory  and  his 
worth. 

Mr.  Petigru  was  indeed  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
men  that  our  community  ever  produced.    Meaning  no 


JAMES  L.    PETIGRU.  15 

approach  to  profanity  or  irreverence  in  the  allusion, 
he  may,  in  respect  of  his  gifts,  moral  and  intellectual, 
personal  and  professional,  have  been  appropriately 
called  "  wonderful  counsellor."  Graduating  at  our 
State  college  with  the  first  honor  of  his  class,  he  pur- 
sued the  honorable  and  useful  occupation  of  a  school- 
master while  preparing  for  the  bar ;  and,  on  his 
admission  into  the  legal  fraternity,  he  soon  arose  to 
the  highest  honors  and  emoluments  of  his  profession. 
lie  stood,  during  his  long  and  brilliant  career  as  a 
lawyer,  at  the  h^ad  of  the  profession, —  undoubtedly 
so  in  this  State  ;  and  perhaps,  also,  both  in  the  old 
Union  and  in  the  new  Southern  Confederacy.  Law  he 
studied  and  mastered  as  a  science,  and  he  was  most 
profoundly  versed  in  its  learning  and  its  principles. 
So  much  was  this  the  case,  that  not  only  his  brother 
practitioners  looked  up  to  him  as  a  teacher,  but  even 
the  bench  regarded  him  as  the  Gamaliel  of  jurispru- 
dence. Well  do  many  of  us,  his  contemporaries, 
remember  the  numerous  triumphs,  before  court  and 
jury,  which  at  once  asserted  and  crowned  his  profes- 
sional pre-eminence.  Cruger  and  Daniel  stands  as  a 
monument  of  his  learninti*  and  labor,  —  a  carthavinu: 
been  necessary  to  convey  his  numerous  and  ponderous 
authorities  to  our  highest  court  of  State  judicature; 
and  his  brilliant  success  was  commensurate  with  his 
lavish  expenditure  of  learning  and  toil.  Pell  and 
Ball  was  an  achievement  in  its  masterly  analysis 
of  the  doctrine  of  pr('suni])lious  ;  as  perfect  a  gem  in 
its  way  as  the  thrilling  elocjuencc  of  his  gil'lod  associ- 
ate and  friend,  Legare,  call'-d  forth  hy  the  shipwreck 
tragedy  which  consigned  husband  and  wife,  amid  the 


16  MEMOBIAL   OF 

rage  and  howl  of  the  elements,  to  the  same  ocean- 
grave.  DeCottes  and  Talvande  showed  him  the 
generous  and  sympathizing  champion  of  a  much- 
wronged  W'idow,  and  exhibited  his  power  to  move 
the  passions  and  mould  the  verdict  of  the  jury  by  the 
charm  and  potency  of  pathetic  eloquence.  Conspicu- 
ous among  his  professional  characteristics  and  virtues 
was  that  noble  generosity,  which,  in  the  cause  of 
benevolence  or  of  principle,  gratuitously  enlisted  his 
powers  and  resources  with  a  zeal  and  ability  which  no 
fee,  however  large,  could  so  readily  secure.  Eobert- 
son  and  Gilfdlin  vs.  Shannon  strikingly  illustrated  his 
holy  abhorrence  of  oppression,  and  wdiat  may  be 
styled  the  perseverance  of  benevolence,  pursuing  its 
noble  and  disinterested  end  undeterred  by  defeat,  and 
hoping  against  hope,  until,  crowned  by  final  and  com- 
plete success,  it  gave  liberty  to  the  aged  and  time- 
worn  tenant  of  the  prison. 

Nothing  could  more  decisively  prove  his  legal 
pre-eminence  than  his  selection  by  the  State  Legis- 
lature, notwithstanding  his  unpopular  politics  and 
opinions,  to  reduce  to  a  code  the  statute  laws  of  the 
State;  a  highly  honorable  and  responsible  task, which 
he  barely  lived  to  complete. 

A  passing  tribute,  too,  is  due  to  the  remarkable 
and  infinite  power  of  wit  and  humor  with  which  he 
relieved  the  asperities  and  the  tedium  of  forensic  con- 
flicts and  investigations,  convulsing  auditory,  bar,  and 
even  bench,  w^itli  contagious  merriment ;  and  also  to 
the  potency  with  which  he  applied  ridicule  and  sar- 
casm as  a  forensic  weapon  and  a  test  of  truth. 

Much  could  be  added  to  this  portraiture  of  his 
professional  character  and  career,  did  time  and  the 


JAMES  L.  PETIGRU.  17 

occasion  admit  of  the  completion  of  the  picture,  —  how 
truthful  he  was  in  the  citation  and  application  of 
authorities;  how  fair,  and  above  trick  or  artifice,  in 
his  practice ;  how  kind,  paternal,  and  even  brotherly, 
in  his  deportment  to  younger  members  of  the  legal 
fraternity.  To  sum  up  all  in  few  but  expressive 
words,  he  was  at  once  the  patriarch  of  the  bar,  and 
the  Bayard  of  his  profession,  —  sans  peiir  et  sans 
reproche. 

But  it  was  not  onlj^  as  a  profound  lawj'er  that  Mr. 
Petigru  challenged  our  admiration  for  his  intellectual 
gifts  and  acquirements.  lie  was  a  classical  scholar  ; 
a  man  of  literary  habitudes ;  a  w^riter  of  taste  and 
elegance,  as  often  testified  by  the  essay  and  the  oration, 
couched  in  language  drawn  from  the  pure  well  of 
English  undefiled  ;  it  having  been  his  peculiarity  and 
pride  to  adhere,  as  closely  as  possible,  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  vocabularv. 

As  a  man,  Mr.  Petigru  was  full  of  noble  qualities. 
lie  was  o-enerous  and  charitable  even  to  a  fault.  He 
had  "a  heart  to  devise  and  a  hand  to  do  liberal 
things."  His  purse  was  ever  ready  at  the  call  of  the 
needy  and  deserving,  and  freely  emptied  itself  to  the 
wants  of  friendship.  If  his  fortune  had  been  as  large 
as  his  heart,  it  would  have  been  princely  indeed  ;  but, 
owing  much  to  his  exceeding  great  liberality  and 
fearless  assumption  of  respousibility  for  friends,  he 
may  be  said  to  have  verified  Daniel  Webster's  defini- 
nition  or  description  of  the  lawyer,  "  One  who  works 
liard,  lives  well,  and  dies  jjoor."  lid  it  be  the  care 
and  privilege  of  his  brethren  that  liis  iionored  widow 
siiall  never  realize  the  fact. 

3 


18  ME  MOB  I AL   OF 

But  the  most  distinsruishino;  feature  of  Mr.  Peti- 
grii's  character  was  his  moral  courage.     Descended, 
maternall}^,  from  the  Huguenot,  his  was  that  intrepid 
and  martyr  spirit  which  made  him  worthy  of  a  race 
that  numbered  the  srreat  Conde  and  the  chivalrous 
Constable  Montmorenci  among  its  noblesse  and  heroic 
commanders.      True   to    principle,  and   fearless    in 
the    assertion  of    right,   he  never    swerved  to    the 
right  hand  or  the  left  to  promote  personal  interest 
or   court   popular   favor.      Mailed   in  the  armor  of 
honesty,  all  respected  his  motives,  and  admired  his 
boldness    and   independence,   while    they   lamented 
what  they  believed  to  be  his  errors  of  opinion,  as 
fearlessly  avowed  as  they  were  conscientiously  enter- 
tained.    He  seemed  encircled,  as  it  were,  with  an 
atmosphere   of    dignity,   armed    with  some    electric 
power  to  repel  hostile  or  dishonoring  assault.     But 
often,  in  his  long  and  useful  career,  w^as  this  noble 
trait  of  his  character  called  into  play  by  the  dearest 
interests  of  our  community  ;  and  never  did  he  fail  to 
throw  himself  in   the  breach,- and    do  valiant   and 
efficient  battle  for  the  Right.     Plere  let  us  recall  the 
me'rnorable    occasion,   Avhen    our    city,   temporarily 
frightened  from  her  propriety  by  an  emeute  at  the 
workhouse,   was    on    the    brink    of    tarnishing   her 
escutcheon  by  mob  violence ;  when   the  misguided 
demagogue,  and  the  more  criminal  incendiary,  stood 
ready  to  light  the  torch  ;  and  when  Mr.  Petigru,  as  the 
intrepid  champion  of  law  and  order,  bravely  breasted 
the  torrent,  warning  our  citizens  not  to  emulate  the 
Red   Republicanism    of    France,   and    calming    the 
troubled  elements  into  peace  and  quiet.     But  for  his 


JA^IES  L.  PETIGRU.  19 

interposition  and  that  of  noble  compatriots  at  that 
fearful  crisis,  Calvary  Church  may  have  been  made  a 
funeral  pile,  and  even  the  dwelling  of  his  present 
eulogist  razed  to  the  ground,  to  the  everlasting  dis- 
grace of  the  Palmetto  City. 

But  here  let  me  close  this  imperfect  tribute  to 
one  who  was  the  comfort  of  the  domestic  and  the 
ornament  of  the  social  circle,  a  light  of  literature,  and 
an  apostle  of  jurisprudence. 

Tears  for  his  loss  ;  the  cj'press  and  the  willow  for 
his  grave  ;  homage  to  his  memory. 

Sir,  with  heartfelt  but  melancholy  satisfaction,  I 
second  the  resolutions. 

Hon.  R.  Barnwell  Riiett  followed,  and  said,  — 

Mr.  Chairman,  —  I  obey,  perhaps  for  the  1  ist  time, 
the  summons  for  the  Charleston  Bar  to  assemble 
together  to  commemorate  the  death  of  one  of  its 
members.  Its  most  distinguished  and  its  most  vener- 
able member,  with  Init  one  exception,  has  left  its  toils 
and  its  honors,  —  my,  tutor  in  boyhood,  my  friend  in 
early  manhood,  my  better  friend  in  advanced  life,  whom 
neither  time  nor  fortune,  private  duties  nor  troubles, 
nor  the  angry  public  contests  and  differences  of  more 
than  thirty  years,  ever  induced  to  say  to  me  an 
unkind  W(jrd  or  to  do  .in  imldiid  (LmmI.  Private  acts 
of  fricndsliip,  1  know,  K)se  some  of  I  heir  sacredness 
by  I>eing  disclosed  to  others  ;  but  1  am  sure  T  sliall 
be  pardoned  for  mentioning  an  incident  in  our  lives, 
wliich  strongly  dis])Iay('d  (uu-  relations  and  his  own 
generous  nature.  'I'licre  are  many  tests  of  riicudsliij) ; 
but  the   woiM    r(;cogMiz(!S  one   as    i)araiiioiint    to    all 


20  MEMORIAL  OF 

others,  —  money.  Christ  himself  seems  to  have  con- 
sidered it  as  the  most  potent  of  all  influences;  for  it 
is  the  one  thing  he»  has  to  put  as  antagonist  to  him- 
self "  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mammon "  is  his 
twice-repeated  declaration.  The  deceased  gave  me 
this  test  of  his  friendship.  In  the  commercial  con- 
vulsions of  1837,  I  thought  I  was  ruined  by  the 
misfortunes  of  others.  I  went  to  him,  and  told  him 
my  troubles.  He  expressed  to  me  his  warm  sym- 
pathy, and  then  said,  "  I  have  no  money ;  you  know 
I  cannot  keep  money  :  but  my  credit  is  yours,  in  any 
manner  you  choose  to  use  it,  to  the  last  dollar  of  the 
property  I  possess."  At  this  time  he  was  in  posses- 
sion of  a  considerable  estate,  the  fruit  of  many  years 
of  labor  and  accumulation.  I  did  not  embrace  his 
generous  offer :  but  it  shows  you  the  man ;  and  it 
shows  you  also,  in  part,  why  I  am  here  to-day  to 
bear  testimony  to  the  character  and  worth  of  one  of 
the  bravest  and  truest  of  friends. 

Mr.  Chairman,  much  has  been  well  said,  and  much 
more  will  be  said,  of  the  characteristics  and  life  of  this 
distinguished  man.  This  is  not  perhaps  the  time  or 
the  occasion  in  which  his  whole  character  can  be  de- 
lineated;  but  I  propose  to  lay  before  you  a  few  of 
the  traits  that  distinguished  him  from  other  men, 
and  made  him  most  esteemed  and  admired. 

To  say  that  the  deceased  was  a  great  lawyer  is  to 
say  but  little  of  his  great  qualities.  He  never  was 
a  mere  lawyer  to  his  clients.  He  was  a  friend,  and  a 
sincere  friend  ;  and,  when  called  on  for  his  counsel,  he 
never  stopped  at  expounding  the  law,  but  placed  before 
his  clients  the  duties  their  positions  required.     With 


JAMES  L.   PETIGRU.  21 

him,  honor  was  worth  more  than  property  ;    and  he 
frankly  and  freely  counselled  the  course  that  high 
morals  required  his  clients   to  pursue,   irrespective 
of  law.    A  young  gentleman,  just  arrived  at  manhood, 
sought  his  legal  advice  on  a  very  delicate  matter, 
relative  to  the  conduct  of  property  on  the  part  of  an 
executor.     He  told  him  his  legal  rights,  and  then  said 
to  him, "  This  is  no  matter  of  law :  it  is  a  matter  affect- 
ing   your    honor    as    a    gentleman ;    and    3'ou    must 
redress   it."      I  need  not   say  that  his   advice   was 
followed.     Not  long  since,  an  old  client  went  to  him 
to  make  his  will.     He  produced  a  paper  containing 
the  heads  of  the  will  as  he  desired  it  should  be  made. 
Amongst  other  provisions  was  one  prescribing,  that, 
should    any    of    his    children    die    without    leaving 
children,  their  portion  should  revert  to  his  right  heirs. 
"This  is  wrong,"  said  Mr.   Petigru :  '•' your  children 
ought  to  have  the  power  of  rewarding  benefactions 
by   the  property  you  leave  them,  as  you  are  now 
doing  in  your  will ;  and  you  ought  not  to  deprive 
them  of  this  power  ; "  and  he  run  his  pen  through  the 
clause.      A  widow  lady,  after  years  of  counsel  and 
advice,  proposed  to  him  to  send  in  his  bill.     "  No," 
said  he:  "you  have  a  largo  family,  and  must  want 
money.      If  I   die  l)efore   you,  you  will  find  some 
jnemorandum  of  wliat  you  owe  me  in  my  books  ;  and, 
if  you  die  before  me,  your  estate  can  pay  it.    I  cannot 
take  money  from  you."     Sir,  1    mention   these   inci- 
dents, known  personally  to  me,  and   1  have  no  doubt 
similar  incidents  are  kninvn  to  many  present,  to  show 
yon  what  sort  of  a  lawyer  our  late  associate  was.     He 
rejdized,  in  his  syin|>athi/in;j  kindness,  more  perfectly 


22  MEMORIAL  OF 

the  old  relation  of  patron  and  client  among  the 
Romans  than  any  lawyer  I  ever  knew.  Nor  was  the 
mighty  power  his  profession  gave  him  ever  abused  to 
fo.ster  dispute,  or  to  defeat  justice  by  the  rigorous 
enforcement  of  law.  He  knew  very  well  that  the  laws 
dispense  justice  only  in  their  general  operation,  and 
that,  from  the  very  necessity  of  our  imperfect  reason 
and  nature,  thousands  of  cases  must  occur  in  which 
law,  in  its  application,  is  not  justice  ;  and  therefore 
he  was  ever  assiduous  to  clear  himself  of  any  com- 
plicity with  moral  crime  which  the  profession  of  law 
sometimes  produces.  Of  his  clients  he  was  equally 
carefid ;  and,  in  more  instances  than  one  within  my 
knowledge,  he  counselled  the  abandonment  of  legal 
rights,  because,  in  his  opinion,  inconsistent  with  strict 
honesty  and  honor. 

The  deceased  did  not  seek  poiuer.  The  very  few 
occasions  in  which  he  was  a  candidate  before  the 
people  was  rather  to  defeat  what  he  deemed  a  false 
policy  than  to  obtain  place.  The  vulgar  ambition 
of  personal  distinction  or  notoriety  had  no  place  in 
his  capacious  and  noble  mind.  Perhaps,  too.  he  feared 
power,  remembering  the  great  accountability  it  in- 
volved. Certainly  no  man  has  lived  in  our  day  who 
possessed  so  much  moral  and  so  little  official  authority. 
To  control  himself,  and  not  others ;  to  do  his  duty, 
and  not  to  win  place,  —  seems  to  have  been  the  ele- 
vated aim  of  his  career.  With  his  powerful  intellect, 
keen  wit,  and  fearless  will,  no  man  could  have  been 
more  dangerous  in  a  republic,  if  he  hiid  beeri  desti- 
tute of  high  princi[)les.  But  all  these  were  placed 
upon  the  side  of  oi'dcr,  for  the  maintenance  of  truth, 


JAMES  L.   PETIGRU.  23 

and  furtherance  of  justice.  His  error,  if  error  it  was, 
rather  led  him  to  too  much  abstinence  from  power, 
than  desire  to  possess  it.  He  not  only  would  not 
yield  any  of  his  convictions  to  obtain  it,  but  he  would 
practise  no  reserve  in  their  enunciation.  He  quailed 
before  no  antagonism,  but  rather  seemed  to  defy  it. 
£sse  qnam  videri,  the  proud  motto  of  Plato,  seemed  ever 
to  have  been  in  his  contemplation.  The  virtues  of  a 
good  man  are  not  exclusively  his  own :  they  belong 
also  to  society  and  the  country  ;  and  if,  by  any  course 
of  his,  they  are  lost  to  others,  he  has  not  fulfilled  the 
full  measure  of  his  duty.  We  cannot  presume  error 
in  this  particular  in  one  so  conscientious  and  watchful 
over  himself  as  the  deceased  ;  but  many  doubtless 
have  deemed  him  too  indifferent  or  too  haughty  in 
his  disregard  of  power.  With  the  great  multitude 
of  men,  in  public  affairs,  place  is  success.  To  conceal 
opinions  where  they  are  unpopular,  to  dissemble  with 
the  people,  to  support  expediencies,  and  to  make 
correct  principles  subordinate  to  policies,  is  ever  the 
resorts,  to  obtain  power,  of  men  with  weak  minds  or 
weaker  principles.  It  is  only  the  strong  man  —  strong 
in  conscious  rectitude,  strong  in  convictions  of  truth, 
strong  in  the  never-failing  and  eternal  vindications 
of  time  —  who  can  put  aside  the  temptations  of  present 
power,  and  patiently  submit  to  unofficial  inferiority. 
Superficial  observers  may  not  understand,  perhaps 
despise,  the  greatness  of  such  a  man.  They  are  daz- 
zled by  the  external  trappings  and  inlhiences  of  power. 
But  greatness  in  man  consists  of  personal  attributes, 
not  in  tlie  external  accidents  around  liiiii.  Indeed, 
power,  without  wisdom  and  principle  to  direct  it,  only 


•24  MEMORIAL   OF 

renders  men  more  mean  and  contemptible.  ITenry 
VIII.  of  England,  and  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  were  pos- 
sessed of  vast  power ;  yet  are  they  described  as  pre- 
eminently the  meanest  men  of  their  day.  Mr.  Petigru 
was  a  great  man,  without  official  power,  —  great  in  his 
moral  characteristics,  self-poised,  disinterested,  faithful, 
fearless. 

The  deceased  was  no  linnier  of  ijopidanty.  He  was 
no  courtier,  either  in  the  saloons  of  the  reputed 
great,  or  on  the  hustings  before  the  people.  The 
same  characteristics  which  make  the  sycophant  at 
courts  make  the  demagogue  before  the  people. 
Falsehood  is  the  essential  feature  of  both.  To  say 
what  is  agreeable,  but  not  true ;  to  flatter  with 
professions  which  are  unreal,  and  thus  to  obtain  con- 
fidence and  support  to  further  objects  of  ambition,  — 
is  the  usual  course  of  the  seekers  of  iiopulantjj.  The 
deceased  doubtless  valued  the  esteem  of  men ;  but 
it  was  esteem  based  on  truth  and  virtue.  Favors 
are  seldom  just ;  and  favors  of  the  people  in  repub- 
lican governments,  not  won  by  service  or  merit,  are 
as  dangerous  to  the  people  as  they  are  corrupting 
to  the  individual.  They  are  dangerous  to  the  peo- 
ple, because  they  do  not  imply  that  fidelity  and  in- 
tegrity wliich  are  essential  to  the  administration 
and  perpetuity  of  this  form  of  government';  and 
they  corrupt  the  individual,  who  learns,  by  his  eleva- 
tion, that  correct  principles  are  not  essential  to  offi- 
cial distinction.  In  the  noble  lano:uao:e  of  Lord 
Mansfield,  he  might  have  said,  "  I  honor  the  people  : 
I  love  popularity  ;  but  it  is  that  popularity  which 
follows,  not  that  which  I  sought  after."     Yet,  although 


JAMES  L.  PETIGRU.  25 

not  seeJcinf/,  he  was  not  without  popularity.  It  fol- 
loived  him  in  all  the  walks  of  life  ;  and,  if  it  did  not 
lift  him  to  high  official  station,  it  was  because  his 
views  of  public  policy  were  opposed  to  those  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  people  with  whom  he  lived. 
False  confidence  in  the  people,  induced  by  false  pro- 
fessions, —  which  is  the  great  cause  of  the  overthrow 
of  republics,  —  could  neveT  find  countenance  in  his 
elevated  patriotism. 

Mr.  Petigra  was  essentially  a  conservative,  —  conser- 
vative in  all  his  views  of  societ//,  government,  and  reli- 
gion. He  detested  all  the  new  inventions  which 
would  arm  society  against  itself,  by  pretensions  to 
organize  and  control  it.  He  hated  the  pernicious 
doncmas  of  Thomas  Paine,  and  the  whole  batch  of 
French  atheists  and  philosophers,  who,  by  denying 
the  weakness  of  our  fallen  nature,  would  set  man 
against  his  fellow  man,  in  vain  efforts  for  abstract 
justice  and  equality,  and  vainer  eflbrts  for  human 
perfectibility.  He  was  a  comervalivc  in  govemincuf . 
He  clung,  perhaps  too  much,  to  things  as  they  were, 
for  the  dani'erous  times  in  which  he  lived.  He  was 
a  supporter  of  the  Union  of  the  United  States,  as 
long  as  it  lasted ;  and,  when  it  went  down,  he  looked 
to  the  future  with  the  gloomiest  forebodings,  —  too 
sadly  realized,  and  still  covered  with  darkness,  when 
death  closed  his  eyes  uj)on  the  terrii)le  contest  it 
involved.  Yet  to  the  behests  of  his  native  State,  in 
casting  off  the  Union  of  the  United  States,  he  bowed 
with  all  humility.  He  feared  ciiange ;  for  change  in 
governments  too  oltcn,  Ik-  knew,  prodiici'd  hiwless- 
ness  ill   |io\ver,  —  a  lawlessness  which   iii.i}'  endanger 


26  MEMORIAL   OF 

the  welfare  of  a  State,  more  from  its  own  agents 
than  from  the  power  of  external  foes.  Change  also 
broke  off  those  habits  of  submission  and  support  to  a 
government,  which  often  constitute  its  strongest  ele- 
ment of  stability.  He  tried,  therefore,  to  follow  the 
injunction  of  the  Psalmist,  "  Seek  peace  and  insure 
it."  His  generous  and  noble  nature  could  not  realize 
the  dangers  others  thought  they  saw  hanging  over 
the  destinies  of  the  South  from  our  Northern  associ- 
ates. He  could  not  believe  in  their  hate  and  hostil- 
ity, when  not  only  good  faith,  but  manifest  interest, 
demanded  a  policy  on  their  part  of  forbearance  and 
peace.  Like  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  the 
best  men  in  the  South,  he  could  not  understand  the 
characteristics  of  the  people  of  the  North  until  devel- 
oped by  the  stern  test  of  war.  He  was  conservative 
in  religion.  Like  all  men  of  strong  convictions  and 
deep  sensibilities,  his  reverence  for  holy  things  was 
great.  He  admired  the  old  writers,  the  old  paths 
of  religion,  the  old  organization,  the  old  ritual, 
the  venerable  ordinances  of  the  Church.  He  clung 
with  admiration  and  love  to  the  Church  itself,  as  the 
grand  and  appointed  instrumentality  for  the  eleva- 
tion and  salvation  of  men.  His  antique  taste  de- 
lighted in  old  fanes,  with  their  majestic  and  solemn 
architecture,  stained  and  worn  by  the  waste  of  ages. 
The  mysteries  of  religion,  inevitable  from  the  nature 
of  God  himself,  and  our  finite  intelligence,  made 
him  no  skeptic.  They  only  made  him  wonder  and 
adore.  Hard-by  the  place  in  St.  Michael's,  where, 
for  forty  years,  he  attended  the  worship  of  God,  he 
now  lies  interred.     We  mourn  our  loss  in  the  death 


JAMES  L.   PETIGIiU.  27 

of  such  a  man  ;  but  our  loss,  we  lium])ly  trust,  is  liis 
gain  in  eternal  peace,  happiness,  and  glory.  The 
language  of  the  old  Latin  poet,  with  whom  he  was 
so  ftimiliar,  in  his  Ode  to  Virgil  on  the  death*  of 
Quintilius,  may  not  be  inappropriate  :  — 

Cui  Pudor,  et  Justitiai  soror 
Incorrupta  Fides,  nudaqtio  voritas 

Quando  uUuin  iiA'cniet  parem  ? 
IMultis  ille  bonis  flebilis  oceidit: 
Nulli  Hebilior,  quam  tlbi  Virgili. 

Nelsox  Mitchell,  Esip,  rose  and  said,  — 

Mr.  Chairman,  —  x\s  it  has  been  my  privilege,  for 
several  years  past,  to  enjoy  the  opportunity  of  free 
and  almost  daily  association  with  our  deceased 
brother,  I  would  desire  to  add  something,  however 
feeble,  to  the  large  though  well-earned  tribute 
which  his  many  virtues  and  striking  qualities  have 
called  forth. 

It  is  not  an  uncommon  impression,  perhaps  fre- 
quently well  founded,  that  much  private  and  careless 
intercourse,  with  those  whose  efforts  on  signal  occa- 
sions excite  our  admiration,  tends  rather  to  lower 
our  estimate  of  their  powers  and  originality,  'i'his, 
certainly,  was  not  the  case  with  regard  to  Mr.  Peti- 
gru.  It  was  always  after  much  and  familiar  inter- 
course that  our  ;i|)preciati()n  of  lii:u  was  the  highest. 
The  warmth  of  his  love  for  justice,  as  for  somethiu<r 
incarnate;  his  jealous  vigilance  over  tlie  rights  of 
truth,  and  resentnient  of  fil-fhond  in  every  form,  as 
of  ;i  personal  wrong;  tii;it  unswerving  intrepidity 
ol'  opinion  wlii(;li  so  marked  him  ;  iiis  pathetic  ten- 
derness,  not   h'ss    for  nil    huni.in    infirmity    th:in    for 


'2S  MEMOJRIAL    OF 

siiflering,  —  were  always  then  most  impressive  ;  the 
breadth  and  vigor  of  his  perceptions,  his  keen  and 
unsparing  anal3'sis,  so  conspicuous  that  one  would 
ahuost  doubt  whether,  on  public  occasions,  even 
when  most  successful,  he  had  quite  come  up  the 
height  and  vigor  of  which  his  nature  was  capable. 

We  have  all  known  and  enjoyed  the  zest  and  in- 
dividuality of  his  unrestrained  conversation,  the 
interest  of  which  was  so  much  due  to  the  liberality 
and  earnestness  of  his  nature.  He  was  not  one  of 
those  who  thought,  that,  in  this  daily  commerce,  his 
expenditures  were  to  be  nicely  adapted  to  their 
apparent  importance  or  their  immediate  results.  He 
would,  to  a  cordial  though  humble  hearer  lavish  his 
most  felicitous  illustrations  and  strikinsr  views  as 
freely  as  to  a  large  and  influential  assemblage.  His 
earnestness,  too,  especially  commanded  our  respect, 
Avhen  considered  in  view  of  those  graceful  endow- 
ments generally  so  productive  and  sometimes  so 
mischievous. 

Gifted  with  a  most  subtle  wit  and  genial  apprecia- 
tion of  the  ludicrous,  any  thing  like  levity  or  paradox 
was  always  most  foreign  to  him.  Wit  and  humor 
were  never  resorted  to  for  mere  patch-work  embel- 
lishments ;  with  him  they  were,  for  the  most  part, 
modes  of  thous-ht,  and  instruments  of  illustration. 
If  at  times  he  pursued  a  grotesque  or  pleasant  image 
beyond  the  range  of  his  subject,  we  might  be  sure  it 
had  originated  there. 

His  instance  was  an  instructive  illustration  of  what 
an  error  it  is,  in  appreciating  striking  character,  to 
sever  the  moral  from  the  intellectual  and  ambitious, 


JAMES  L.  PETIGRU.  29 

instead  of  considerinu^  them  too;ether.  It  was  no 
doubt  owing  much  to  the  earnestness  on  which  I 
have  dwelt,  and  his  broad  sympathies,  that  he  so  pre- 
served the  vigor  of  his  faculties  and  the  freshness  of 
his  pulsations;  for,  though  full  ripe  in  years  when 
he  terminated  his  career,  to  the  last  he  exhibited 
nothing  of  age  but  its  dignity  and  its  wisdom. 

David  Ramsay,  Esq.,  followed. 

Mr.  Chairman,  —  I  would  fain  add  my  tribute  to 
those  of  my  seniors.  Others  have  spoken  of  Mr. 
Petigru  to  whom  he  was  nearer  in  years  and  profes- 
sional position  ;  but  it  will  not  be  denied  us,  who 
knew  him  in  his  later'life,  to  share  the  regret  of  con- 
temporaries and  immediate  successors.  As  one  of 
his  many  students,  I  had  much  to  thank  him  for;  as 
a  member  of  the  bar,  I  could  feel  proud  of  friendly 
association  with  such  a  man.  So  much  has  been 
said,  fitting  and  decorous,  that  to  speak  again  of  his 
professional  or  private  character  were  to  use  only 
enfeebling  repetition.  We  are  here  to  honor  him  as 
an  advocate,  and  have  spoken  of  his  successful  career 
as  a  great  lawyer;  that,  fortunate  in  this  career  of 
life,  he  was  fortunate  in  the  opportunity  of  his  death  ; 
that,  !is  he  lived  to  vindicate  law,  so  he  was  not  to 
die  before  recalling  the  jurisprudence  of  his  State, 
under  her  sanction  and  commission,  to  system  and 
order.  lie  was  yet  more  fortunate  in  associating  his 
name  with  higher  principle  than  can  be  found  in  the 
collilion  of  local  laws:  these  partake  of  the  infirmi- 
ties of  their  times,  and  with  them,  hnjjpily  for  man, 
must  be  forgotten.     The  i)cculiar  liw  of  any  pt'riod, 


30  MEMORIAL   OF 

the  peculiar  institution,  will  soon  be  a  tradition,  giv- 
ing place  to  the  better  labor  of  a  more  enlightened 
future  ;  yet  from  the  date  of  man,  through  all  his- 
tory, interwoven  with  the  very  thread  of  time,  is  an 
eternal  right.  Seldom  does  it  fall  to  a  purely  legal 
activity  to  vindicate  essential  principle ;  but  that 
which  is  placed  upon  this  height,  whatever  else  the 
waters  of  oblivion  overwhelm,  is  flir  above  their 
surge.  The  greatest  jurist  of  the  past,  who  linked 
his  name  to  the  greatest  code  in  human  law,  had,  in 
his  remote  age,  to  choose  between  right  and  life. 
He  sealed  his  testament  with  blood,  preferring  the 
wrath  of  Caracalla  to  the  accusation  of  innocence  ; 
and,  long  as  remains  language^  will  vibrate,  through 
its  various  channels,  the  dying  jurist's  undying 
answer,  —  "  Qucb  facia  Icedunt  imtatem,  existhnaiionem, 
vereciindiam,  et,  lit  generaliter  dixerim,  contra  bonos  mores 
fiunt,  nee  nos  facer e  jjosse  credendumJ'  James  Louis 
Petigru  laid  "a«  offering  of  age  upon  the  altar  of  justice^' 
as  unquenchable  lustre.  When  the  Sequestration 
Act  required  the  confidence  of  clients  to  be  betrayed, 
the  trusts  of  imbecile  age,  incapable  inftmcy,  irres- 
ponsible lunacy,  the  defence  of  widows  and  helpless 
W'Omcn,  the  ties  of  nearest  kindred  and  sacred  grati- 
tude, all  to  be  abandoned,  his  was  the  voice  that 
gave  denial  to  the  delator's  search.  His  last  effort 
was  truly  the  coronation  of  his  work.  Who  can  for- 
get his  voice,  so  long  eloquent  for  others,  then  plead- 
ing for  himself  as  to  the  question,  why  he  made  re- 
fusal, as  he  answered  with  a  despairing  accent,  "  Be- 
cause I  was  free  born."  He  well  deserved  such  heri- 
tnge,  for  all  his  long  life  was  devoted  to  Right,  to 


JAMES  L.  PETIGRU.  31 

Truth,  to  Freedom ;  and,  now  that  he  is  no  more, 
gratitude,  friendship,  and  veneration  are  met  to 
mourn  liim  here,  as  in  all  the  circles  of  his  life. 
Even  when  we  are  gone,  all  Ave  loved  and  honored 
forgotten,  our  laws  and  customs  questions  of  anti- 
quity, his  last  great  defence  will  still  survive.  I 
stand  amono;  those  who  shall  see  the  dawn  of  another 
age,  in  which  his  recollection  will  endure  as  long  as 
gratitude  and  affection;  even  afterwards,  I  know 
that  there  is  an  unfading  memory  for  those  whose 
words,  in  unison  with  the  sublime  harmony  of  eternal 
Eight,  rose  above  the  transient  discords  of  Time. 

George  S.  Bryan,  Esq.,  was, the  next  speaker. 

Mr.  CJudrman,  —  I  feel  that  it  is  scarcely  per- 
mitted me  to  be  a  gleaner  in  this  field,  or  to  speak 
at  all  in  this  presence  ;  and,  if  my  relations  with  him 
wdio  has  gone  were  simply  those  of  a  lawyer,  I 
misjfht  well  be  silent.  The  "-eneration  with  whom  he 
passed  the  prime  of  his  life,  the  renowned  lawyers 
and  orators  with  whom  he  wrestled  on  this  arena,  — 
Hayne,  Hunt,  McDuflie,  Grimke,  Bailey,  Preston, 
Legare,  Harper, —  have  long  gone  to  their  rest. 
With  diffidence,  those  of  us  wlio  are  liere,  the  chil- 
dren, as  it  were,  the  grandchildren,  of  him  who  has  de- 
parted,—  with  dillidence,  indeed,  may  we  attempt  to 
measure  his  mind,  and  (ix  his  rank  as  a  lawyer.  lUit 
wlio  of  us  shall  sound  tlie  depths  of  his  humanity  ? 
Who  sliall  measure  his  large  heart  ?  Who  shall  seek 
to  circumscribe  witliin  strict  lines  that  great  liberal 
ii.it  me,  wliicli,  in  its  fulness,  ovcrllowed  ;ill  bounds, 
and  poured  itself  all  al)i(>;Ml  ".'      Who  can  describe  the 


32  MEMORIAL   OF 

delights  of  his  fellowship,  and  paint  the  pleasant, 
familiar  spirit,  so  merry  and  so  gamesome  ;  jocund 
as  the  morn  ;  bright  and  joyous  as  the  spring  with 
all  its  birds,  and  warm  as  its  quickening  breath  ? 

Great  and  mirivalled  was  our  friend  as  a  lawyer, 
touchingly  and  simply  and  profomidly  eloquent  as 
an  advocate,  and  distinguished  and  incomparable  as 
a  wit ;  but  how  much  greater  than  all  these  the 
genial,  loving,  heroic  7uan,  James  L.  Petigru  ! 

His  charity  has  been  celebrated ;  and  never,  in- 
deed, could  the  words  of  the  great  poet  be  applied 
more  truly  to  any  one  than  to  him  :  — 

"  For  his  bounty, 
There  was  no  winter  in't :  an  autumn  'twas, 
That  grew  the  more  by  reaping." 

And  how  tender,  considerate,  and  delicate  in  the 
bestowal  of  his  favors !  His  benefits  descended,  like 
the  dews  of  the  night,  in  silence,  without  a  witness, 
and  were  known  only  by  their  fruit,  and  the  voice 
of  gratitude,  which  could  not  be  silenced.  The  cry 
of  distress  was  to  him  as  the  voice  of  God.  He 
counted  not  the  cost  of  his  compassion :  whether 
his  treasury  was  full  or  empty,  he  gave.  He  drew 
upon  the  future  when  he  had  not,  and  made  good 
his  drafts  by  toil,  often  continued  deep  into  the 
night,  and  frequently  surprised  by  the  first  ray  of 
the  morning.  And  he  gave  not  only  to  the  good : 
it  was  enough  that  a  fellow-creature"  should  be  aban- 
doned and  forlorn  and  wretched  to  enlist  his  sympa- 
thies and  command  his  aid.  And  just  at  the  point 
that  the  world  dropped  such  an  one,  and  he  had  not 
a  friend,  he  bccauie  his  friend,  and  covered  him  with 


JAMES  L.   PETIGRU.  33 

the  mantle  of  his  protection.  It  was  for  the  only 
Judge  to  judge  and  to  punish:  it  was  for  him  to  pity 
and  to  help.  But  his  was  not  simplj^  the  charity 
that  gives  and  serves :  his  also,  in  rare  measure, 
without  pretension  or  profession,  that  diviner  and 
rarer  charit}^,  which  "  suflereth  long,  and  is  kind ; 
envieth  not;  vaunteth  not  itself;  is  not  puffed 
up  ;  doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly ;  seeketh  not 
her  own  ;  is  not  easily  provoked  ;  thinketh  no  evil ; 
rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth  in  the 
truth  ;  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopetli 
all  things,  endureth  all  things." 

How  touching  and  sublime  his  patience  under 
every  variety  of  ills !  And  he  whose  instinct  it  was 
to  give  and  to  aid,  himself  surprised  by  misfortune, 
with  what  magnanimit}^  did  he  receive,  with  what 
nobler  generosity  bear  obligation,  and,  after  ten- 
fold requital,  still  owe,  and  ever  pursue,  with  service, 
affection,  and  gratitude,  those  who  had  stood  b\^  him 
in  liis  hour  of  trial ! 

It  was  my  fortune  to  have  known  him  long,  and 
my  unequalled  privilege  to  have  felt,  as  it  were,  the 
beatings  of  his  heart,  wlien  he  had  to  meet  the  great 
occasions  of  his  life.  That  brave  heart  never  Ihit- 
tered  or  faltenvl  in  the  i)ath  of  duty.  l)ut,  Mr. 
Chairman,  how  mucli  it  cost  liim  to  be  true  to  coun- 
try, to  deny  affection,  to  dilfcr  utterly  with  those 
whom  lie  tendc'rly  loved,  mid  to  turn  his  loving  na- 
ture away  from  those,  wlio,  dilfering,  yet  chmg  to 
him  ! 

And  lie  whose  business  it  was  (o  deal  wilh  the 
sul)tlelies    of    lufu    and    subtk'ties   of   the    law,   ;iiid 


34  MEMORIAL   OF 

whose  life  was  passed  in  the  metropolis  of  trade,  and 
centre  of  politeness,  —  how  free  he  was  from  all  mo- 
dislmess,  sophistication,  and  art !  His  eyes  first  open- 
ing upon  the  light  amidst  the  virgin  scenes  of  Nature, 
he  was  ever  her  unweaned  child.  His  devotion  to 
her,  knowing  no  abatement,  only  grew  warmer  and 
fonder  with  advancing  years.  He  loved  to  quit  the 
hackneyed  haunts  of  men,  and  to 'be  alone  with  her. 
And  she  repaid  his  fidelity  with  her  own  rewards. 
The  freshness  of  her  fields  enveloped  him  as  an 
atmosphere  ;  and  she  breathed  into  him  the  spirit  of 
her  owm  immortal  youth,  and  for  the  barrenness  and 
frosts  of  age  she  gave  him  the  crowned  garlands  of 
spring. 

It  is  a  grave  error  that  he  was,  as  has  been  sup- 
posed, indifferent  to  opinion,  and  careless  of  office  ; 
that  he  did  not  appreciate  the  seat  and  authority  of 
the  magistrate,  and  properly  estimate  those  high 
places,  which,  whilst  they  afford  the  surest  passports 
to  distinction  and  the  largest  opportunities  of  useful- 
ness, are  accepted  by  the  multitude  as  the  only 
measure  of  mind,  and  evidence  of  greatness.  Pie 
knew  well  the  value  of  the  golden  candlestick  to  the 
candle  ;  and  that  a  light,  to  be  seen  aflir,  must  be  set 
upon  a  hill.  No  one  more  than  he  submitted  rever- 
ently to  all  just  authority  ;  no  one  more  than  he  was 
a  lover  of  order ;  no  one  felt  more  profoundly  the 
deep  significance  of  the  line  of  the  inspired  sage  and 
poet,  — 

"  Take  but  degree  away,  untune  that  string." 

No  one  loved  his  countrymen  and  fellow-men  with  a 
fonder  aflection,  and    craved   their   recognition  and 


JAMES  L.   PETIGBU.  35 

sympathy  with  a  more  passionate  longing ;  and,  if  it 
ever  seemed  otherwise,  it  was  but  the  frettins;  of  the 
eddy,  produced  by  the  very  depth  and  force  of  the 
current ;  and  no  one  more  than  he  could  feel  denial, 
postponement,  exclusion,  suppression.  lie  bore  them 
all  with  manly  fortitude ;  with  cheerful  submission, 
without  parade ;  a  martyr,  without  affecting  martyr- 
dom ;  defeated,  but  never  overthrown. 

"  Who  hatli  beheld  decline  upon  his  brow, 
Or  seen  his  mind's  convulsion  leave  it  weak  ?  " 


His  own  individual  greatness  sufficed  to  sustain 
him.  But  he  suffered  ;  and,  suffering,  he  was  willing 
to  suffer  in  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice.  For  them 
he  was  prepared  to  suffer  all  things.  As,  in  his 
.  charity,  he  was  charitable  at  the  cost  of  ease  and 
wealth  and  ceaseless  toil ;  so,  in  his  love  of  country, 
he  was  faithful  at  the  expense  of  place  and  power 
and  fame.  He  had  ambition,  —  the  ambition  of  excel- 
lence, of  service,  of  a  pure  fame,  —  that  echo  of  the 
world's  abiding  respect,  affection,  and  gratitude.  He 
knew  that  the  mere  practising  lawyer,  like  the  mere 
practising  physician,  unless  he  reach  the  heights  of 
oratory  or  speak  from  the  chair  of  the  professor,  can 
serve  only  his  neighbors,  and  can  scarcely  hope  to 
escape  from  provincial  obscurity ;  and  though  ho 
may  be  useful,  may  be  honored,  may  have  troops  of 
friends,  m;iy  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  gratitude,  yet 
his  name  scarcely  survives  the  day  of  bis  death,  and, 
at  best,  lives  onl}'  in  the  remembrance  of  the  genera- 
tion he  served  and  the  nciii^hborliood  for  wliom  he 
labored.      It  would  have  been   an  escape  and  a  relielj 


36  MEMOniAL   OF 

and  a  matter  for  sober  joy,  if,  in  an  office  worthy  of 
his  abihty,  and  commensurate  with  his  gifts  and 
accomphshments,  he  could  have  been  permitted  to 
have  dispensed  justice  to  this  once  broad  country, 
and  enunciated  universal  principles  in  a  manner  to 
have  challenged  the  lasting  admiration,  respect,  and 
honor  of  mankind.  To  have  sat  alongside  of  Mar- 
shall and  Story,  and  from  that  seat  where  the  judge 
must  frequently  become  the  lawgiver,  and  founding 
his  decisions  upon  the  broadest  sentiments  of  equity, 
whilst  he  pronounces  as  a  judge,  must  teach  as  a 
moralist,  —  to  have  been  allowed  to  speak  from  such 
a  commanding  height,  and  granted  the  opportunity 
of  clothins:  Eio;ht  in  the  forms  which  would  have 
made  the  world  and  the  latest  generations  his  reader 
and  debtor ;  which  would  have  carried  his  name  to 
Westminster  Hall,  and  commended  it  as  an  author- 
ity to  be  cited  by  the  great  and  good  in  all  lands, 
in  the  profession  to  which  he  devoted  his  life,  —  this 
would  have  been  with  him,  indeed,  a  crowning  con- 
solation, and  his  cup  would  have  been  full. 

This  he  had  to  forego ;  this  he  had  consciously  to 
forego.  He  knew  that  the  gate  to  power  —  the  only 
gate  to  power  in  the  Confederacy  —  was  through 
the  State.  Thromirh  that  door  alone  could  he  reach 
the  country  and  the  world,  and  hope  to  win  the 
large  distinction  worthy  of  his  genius.  He  loved 
his  people  better  than  himself;  and  he  could  not  sub- 
scribe* to  a  creed  which  he  believed  would  carry 
death  to  the  countrj^,  and  bring  ruin  on  his  State  ; 
and,  without  complaint,  he  submitted  himself  to  his 
limited  lot  and  narrow  destiny. 


JAMES  L.  PETIGEU.  37 

Justice  it  was  that  ruled  all  his  noble  life  :  with 
him  it  was  but  an  expression  for  Deity,  with  which 
he  could  no  more  trifle  than  with  his  Maker,  and 
to  which  he  bowed  in  utter  and  child-like  submission. 
This  it  was  that  made  him  the  friend,  and  not  the 
flatterer,  of  the  people  ;  the  champion  of  equal  rule 
and  law,  and  the  unswerving  foe  of  license  and  self- 
will,  wdiether  of  the  people,  the  demagogue,  or  the 
despot ;  this  the  inspiration  and  the  soul  of  his  death- 
less love  of  liberty  :  this  it  was  that  lifted  him  above 
the  distinctions  of  class,  of  wealth,  of  power,  and 
made  him  so  strong  against  the  oppressor;  which 
reared  his  arm  so  defiantly  against  all  power  that 
would  play  the  tyrant,  whether  that  of  an  individual 
or  a  class,  or  whether  it  came  clothed  with  the  sanc- 
tions and  authority  of  government.  He  counted  not 
government  itself,  when  it  would  command  to  wrong  : 
he  was  willing  to  suffer  wrong,  but  could  not  be 
made  to  do  it.  He  was  faithful  to  justice,  even  when 
the  sentimeut  of  country  had  to  be  opposed  ;  and 
bore  it  triumphantly  in  the  face  of  all  opposition, 
and  dared  to  be  true  at  the  hazard  of  reproach  and 
contumely,  and  desertion  of  friends. 

He  has  gone  to  his  rest.  lie  hm  so  lived  as  to  win 
from  all  I  he  award  Ihal  he  tvas  an  honest  man,  and  to 
vnite  even  his  opponents  in  the  declaration,  tkd,  however 
v'idebj  he  may  have  erred,  he  teas  still  true.  It  toil  I  be  for 
a  different  people  or  remoter  ricncration  to  sit  in  judijment 
upon  his  opinions  and  counsels,  and  to  concede  or  Uemj  to 
him  the  merit  of  supe?-ior  ?i'isdom. 

I  have  been  betrayed   into  sa}  iug  more  than  I  had 
thought  to  say.     Would   only  that  it  weie  worthier! 


38  MF: MORTAL   OF 

But  I  could  not  be  silent  when  he  Wcas  to  be  lionored, 
"whose  face,  from  my  bojdiood,  was  never  turned 
upon  me  but  in  kindness,  and  whose  friendship  I 
have  counted  the  honor,  privilege,  solace,  and  suffi- 
cient support  of  iny  life,  under  all  circumstances. 

By  request  of  Gen.  William  E.  Martin,  and  in  bis  absence,  Hon. 
"William  D.  Porter  read  the  following  tribute  from  hiin  :  — 

Mr.  Chcdrman,  —  Having  been  unexpectedly  de- 
prived of  the  mournful  gratification  of  joining  the 
bar  in  person  in  their  tribute  to  our  deceased  brother, 
I  solicit  the  indulgence  of  the  meeting  to  be  permitted 
to  pl.ice  on  record  my  sense  of  our  deep  and  irrepa- 
rable loss.  If  this  w^ere  one  of  the  usual  assemblages 
which  often  sadly  enough  call  us  together,  I  should 
not  attach  sufficient  importance  to  my  position  to 
prefer  so  unusual  a  request.  But  I  hope  the  indul- 
gence Avill  be  extended  to  me  in  consideration  of  the 
friendship  of  our  distinguished  brother,  which  I  in- 
herited from  one  whom  he  loved  dearly ;  a  friend- 
ship of  which  I  have  received  the  delightful  and 
never-to-be-forgotten  proofs,  from  my  earliest  recollec- 
tion to  the  last  interview  I  had  with  him  in  the  sick- 
ness which  removed  him  from  us. 

No  one  within  my  observation  has  gone  down  to 
the  graveleavinga  wider  circle  of  devotedly  attached 
friends  than  Mr.  Petigru.  I  have  seen  others  pass 
away,  wdiose  position  attracted  more  of  the  notice 
of  the  world.  They  occupied  some  one  or  other  of 
the  theatres  —  the  senate,  the  field,  or  the  world 
of  letters  —  on  which  national  flime  is  acquired.  He 
filled  none  of  these.     The  forum,  a  limited  one,  too, 


JAMES  L.  PETIGRU.  39 

for  one  fitted  to  shine  in  one  so  much  more  extended, 
and  the  social  circle,  ever  gladdened  by  his  presence, 
were  the  principal  and  almost  only  spheres  in  which 
he  moved.  In  his  long  and  laborious  and  useful  life, 
he  became  personally  well  known  to  a'  very  large  num- 
ber of  individuals.  The  memory,  therefore,  which  lives 
after  him,  is  that  of  personal  knowledge,  derived  from 
actual  notice  and  observation  by  a  very  large  number 
of  countrymen  and  countrywomen.  It  may  be  safely 
affirmed,  that  no  one  has  left  behind  him  more  actual 
endurino;  recollections  of  srreatness  of  mind,  extent  and 
range  of  acquirement,  and  the  charm  and  fxscination 
of  social  intercourse. 

My  pen  would  fiil  in  an}^  attempt  to  sketch  the 
greatness  of  his  professional  achievements.  From  the 
time  when  he  first  appeared,  the  member  of  a  coun- 
try bar,  unaided  by  friends,  and  unsupported  by  the 
adventitious  circumstances  which  often  introduce  men 
to  public  notice,  he  exhibited  that  "  persistive  consis-. 
tency"  which  early  marked  him  as  one  certain  of 
bearing  of!'  the  highest  honors  of  his  profession  ;  and, 
long  before  the  day  and  generation  of  many  here 
present,  he  had  fulfilled  the  expectations  of  his  eaily 
promise.  It  could  not  have  been  otherwise.  In  the 
commencement  of  his  studies,  he  laid  broadly  and 
deeply  the  foundation  upon  which  was  built  the  super- 
fjtructnrc  of  those  great  attainments  which  have  ele- 
vated him  to  so  enviable  a  rank  in  his  profession. 
Tlie  law  was  studied  by  Mr.  Petigrii  as  a  great  and 
noble  science.  He  drank,  not  from  the  muddy  stream 
whicli  Hows  by  tbe  side  of  llie  connnon  wayfarer,  l)ut 
IJir  up  where  it  spi'ings  puie  and  undcHlcd  iVom  llie 


40  MEMOniAL   OF 

sources  of  tlio  fountain.  His  legal  opinions  rested 
upon  great  principles  ;  and,  when  he  quoted  decided 
cases,  he  did  not  seem  to  have  derived  his  views  from 
them,  but  rather  to  adduce  them  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  the  concurrence  of  other  minds  in  the  posi- 
tions he  held.  He  seemed  rather  to  sustain  the  cases 
than  they  to  sustain  him.  In  the  ethics  of  his  profession 
he  set  the  brightest  example.  To  beginners  he  was 
always  kind  and  accessible.  He  did  not  avail  himself 
of  any  technical  exception,  unless  it  involved  the 
merits  of  the  controversy;  and,  in  his  own  language, 
"  did  not  remember  ever  to  have  turned  a  lawyer  out 
of  court  because  he  did  not  understand  his  business." 
The  distin(i:iiishino;  traits  of  his  legral  mind  were  love 
of  truth  and  justice.  Hence  it  has  been  often  re- 
marked, that  no  honor  or  emolument  could  tempt 
him  into  a  cause  where  either  was  violated.  He  was 
much  distinguished  by  moral  courage ;  and  those 
familiar  with  him  will  recall  striking  instances  where 
he  has  espoused,  without  expectation  of  reward,  and 
in  opposition  to  the  frowns  of  the  community,  the 
cause  of  those  whom  he  deemed  friendless  and  op- 
pressed. With  his  ardent  temperament,  and  his  innate 
sympathy  w^th  the  weak,  he  may  have  doubtless 
sometimes  exhibited  that  strong  professional  bias  from 
which  no  one  is  exempt;  but  there  are  few  whose 
judgments,  if  so  clouded,  could  lay  claim  to  so  much 
of  generosit}^,  and  disinterestedness  of  motive.  He  was 
always  remarkable  for  becoming  identified  with  his 
client.  Once  embarked,  and  convinced  of  the  justice 
and  equity  of  his  cause,  he  spared  not  himself  in  its 
su[)port.     Those  who  have  observed  him  in  there- 


JAMES  L.   PETIGRU.  41 

sponsible  position  of  an  advocate  in  a  capital  cause 
will  accord  to  him  all  that  self-immolation  so  well 
described  by  a  great  modern  jurist;  though  I  do  not 
mean  that  his  patriotism  would  justify  the  application 
of  the  concluding  paragraph  :  — 

"  The  advocate  knows,  in  the  discharge  of  his  office, 
but  one  person  in  the  world,  —  that  client,  and  none 
other.  To  save  that  client  by  all  prudent  means,  to 
protect  that  client  at  all  hazard  and  cost  to  all  others, 
and  among  others  to  himself,  is  the  highest  and  most 
unquestioned  qf  his  duties.  He  must  not  regard  the 
alarm,  the  suffering,  the  torment,  the  destruction, 
which  he  may  bring  on  any  others ;  nay,  separating 
even  the  duties  of  a  patriot  from  those  of  an  advocate, 
and  casting  them,  if  need  be,  to  the  wind,  he  must  go 
on,  reckless  of  the  consequences,  if  his  fate  should  be 
unhappily  to  involve  his  country  in  confusion  for  his 
client's  protection." 

All  the  professional  honors  our  friend  desired  were 
conferred  upon  him  through  life ;  and  the  latest  he 
received  was  the  highest,  rendered  as  it  was  at  a 
time  of  great  excitement,  when  his  political  views 
were  well  known  not  to  be  in  harmony  with  those 
of  the  State.  Such  an  instance,  so  rare  in  republics, 
is  alike  a  testimonial  to  the  excellence  of  his  life  and 
character,  and  creditable  to  the  magnanimity  of  the 
Commonwealth.  He  loved  the  State  with  all  the 
;ird()r  of  his  entliusijif-tic  nature;  and  she  testified  to 
his  latest  breath  tliat  ho  enjoyed  nlikc  her  esteem, 
lu-r  confidence,  iiud  her  love. 

IJut  willi  all  oiu-  pride  in  contem[)lating  the  honor 
he   conferred    upon    oiii-    profession    by    bis    upright 


42  MEMOIilAL   OF 

walks  in  its  paths,  with  all  the  gratitude  we  feel  for 
setting  us  all  an  example  so  well  worthy  to  be  fol- 
lowed, I  turn  with  greater  pleasure  to  the  contem- 
plation of  his  character  and  virtues.  There  is  an 
inner  circle  into  which  I  would  not  presume  to  in- 
trude on  this  public  occasion ;  in  which,  perhaps, 
he  was  seen,  of  all  others,  to  the  greatest  advantage. 
As  friends  and  companions  only  are  we  now  per- 
mitted to  speak  of  him. 

There  was  a  charm  in  his  society  rarely  met  with. 
We  all  knew  him  to  be  a  man  of  great  courage. 
We  felt  in  our  daily  intercourse  that  he  was  very 
kind  of  heart  j  that  his  temperament  was  genial,  and 
his  affections  remarkable  for  their  tenderness.  Those 
whom  he  loved  he  loved  always,  through  the  world's 
frowns,  as  well  as  through  its  smiles  ;  and,  when  they 
died,  he  loved  the  children  for  the  parents'  sake. 
His  attachments  never  grew  cold.  His  feelings 
seemed  always  young.  There  was  a  freshness  about 
them  rarely  found  among  those  of  advanced  years ; 
and  they  were  manifested  not  only  to  individuals, 
but  also  in  local  attachments.  The  blight  which  in- 
tercourse with  the  world,  and  many  disappointments, 
often  throw  over  the  feelings  of  earlier  years,  seem 
to  have  been  unknown  by  him ;  and  years  brought 
no  abatement  of  early  affections. 

It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that  his  society  was  a 
source  of  unmingled  pleasure  to  the  aged,  the  middle- 
aged,  and  the  child.  All  were  warmed  and  glad- 
dened by  his  presence.  They  met  him  with  pleasure, 
and  separated  from  him  with  regret. 

Our  last  earthly  separation  has  come.     It  has  come 


JAMES  L.  PETIGBU.  43 

to  US  who  were  cheered  and  gladdened  by  his  pres- 
ence; whose  time  passed  pleasantly  when  he  was 
with  us ;  who  have  witnessed  his  triumphs,  and  re- 
joiced at  his  success.  ■  All  of  him  has  not  left  us. 
We  can  never  be  deprived  of  his  pleasant  memories. 
His  monument  is  in  the  heart  of  each  as  an  enduring 
monument  to  true  friendship,  manly  sincerity,  high 
courage,  generosity,  and  benevolence. 

"  Ars  utinam  mores  animumque  effingere  posset, 
Pulchrior  in  terris  —  nulla  tabula  foret." 

Rendered  by  one  of  Mr.  Petigru's  pupils  beautifully 
thus :  — 

"  Could  Art  but  paint  his  manners  and  his  mind, 
Earth  would  produce  no  tablet  of  the  kind." 

John  Phillips,  Esq.,  oifercd  the  following  additional  resolution  :  — 

Resolved,  That  the  Chief  Justice  of  this  State,-  the  Hon.  John  B. 
O'Neall,  be  requested  to  deliver  an  eulogy  on  the  life  and  character  of 
the  late  James  L.  Petigru,  LL.D.,  at  such  time  and  place  as  will  suit  his 
convenience. 

B.  J.  Whaley,  Esq.,  also  submitted  the  following  resolution :  — 
Resolved,  That,  as  an  additional  mark  of  our  appreciation  of  the  learn- 
in"  and  virtues  of  Mr.  Petigru,  the  members  of  this  bar  do  cause  to  be 
painted  a  full-length  portrait  of  him,  to  be  placed  in  the  Library  Room 
of  the  Court  of  Appeals  ;  and  that,  to  this  end,  the  Chairman  of  this  meet- 
ing do  appoint  a  Committee  to  be  charged  therewith. 

The  preamble  and  resolutions  were  then  put  by  the  Chairman,  and 
unanimously  adopted.  The  resolutions  of  Mr.  John  Piiillii-s  and  ^[r. 
B.  J.  Wjialky,  were  also  unanimously  adopted. 

On  motion  of  J.  W.  Gkay,  Es<i.,  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting  were 

ordered  to  be  published  in  the  newspapers  of  the  city. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  CJkay,  the  meeting  llicn  adjourned. 

C.  IliciiAUDSON  Milks,  Secretary. 


I  ,r  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FAClUn^ 


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